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The Debut of RCR Mailbag looks at Quarterbacks, Alabama, and Peanut Butter

A new feature where we answer your sometimes-relevant questions!

By The Ghost of Jay Cutler
This is Aaron Hernandez's mailbox. He didn't get any of your questions, so don't worry.
This is Aaron Hernandez's mailbox. He didn't get any of your questions, so don't worry.
Andrew Weber-USA TODAY Sports

Earlier this week, I prompted our Twitter followers to ask us questions using the hashtag #RCRMailbag. I wasn't specific as to what types of questions were to be asked, nor did I give any real instructions outside of the initial tweet. We got some responses, many of which were good, so we figured we'd actually follow through and answer them. After doing that, we decided that we liked where this went. So unless this little experiment flickers out, we at the Cup will answer some of your questions once a week. These questions can be about pretty much whatever you'd like, and if they're something we feel like answering then you'll see them as a part of this feature.

Sounds simple enough, right? And the best part is that it's driven by your ideas, and is therefore immensely applicable to pretty much whatever is going on in Ole Miss athletics (or not) at the moment.

So here are some of the questions we received, with our mostly serious responses thereto! Enjoy, and tweet using the #RCRMailbag hashtag for a shot at having your question answered here on Red Cup Rebellion.

Juco: I think there are several possibilities here. Obviously, if Bo Wallace gets hurt, the backup qbs will get lots of playing time. I'm going to assume though, that the question is regarding snaps that are not earned due to injury.

The backup race is between Devante Kincade and Ryan Buchanan, and I wouldn't be surprised if either of them came in during mop-up duty. It seems like we've continually heard that Buchanan looks better than many (who weren't originally salivating that Ole miss signed an MPSA quarterback from Prep) expected. Kincade has tons of ability.

What I keep coming back to, is that if we're talking about anything other than mop-up duty, it doesn't make much sense to play Ryan Buchanan. That's not because of his talent level or anything, but he doesn't offer the type of change-of-pace that Barry Brunetti was last season. Maybe Devante Kincade doesn't either; I haven't seen him in real game action obviously. He did run a lot with great vision at a high level of Texas high school football though, so I imagine that could translate to college ball.

Either way, the backups will be interesting to watch this year, but it's Bo's show. Remember when people were saying Bo wouldn't start another game at Ole Miss? That was funny.

Ghost: It would be nice to be able to replicate Barry Brunetti's production this season, but I don't think we have anyone who could do that quite yet. Both Buchanan and Kincade are unproven, and neither have demonstrated anything to think that they have either the running ability or arm strength of Brunetti. Perhaps most important to Brunetti's abilities last year was his size, where he allowed the Rebs to go into a bigger set in short yardage situations, a size that only Jeremy Liggins can touch (and then devour).

It'd be nice to see Kincade and Buchanan get snaps in mop up duty, and see Liggins get some situationally if he can figure out the whole "don't fumble and throw accurate passes when tasked to do so" thing. I imagine we'll get a pretty good taste of the former, and see none of the latter.

Smeargle: It's pretty funny to look back at this exact question last year when we discussed it on Red Cup Radio leading up to our trip to Tuscaloosa. Most fans were in one of three camps: (1) Definitely gonna beat Bama; (2) Have a really good shot to beat Bama; (3) no shot to beat Bama. While most fans probably fell into the 2nd category, a disturbing amount were over confidently in the first. This is pretty hilarious considering the shutout that the Rebs suffered, mostly due to a lot of risk taking from Freeze.

This season it seems the chances to end the 10 year losing streak against the Tide are even better. Most people point to the fact that Bama has a new starting QB but let me remind everyone, two out of the three national championships that Bama has won under Saban have been with a first year starting QB. Will this year be the Rebs' best chance of beating Bama since Eli? I would answer with a resounding YES. And while the game is in Oxford, Bama will be coming off a bye weekend. Traditionally, Saban doesn't lose when coming off a bye. Ima go with 55% Ole Miss.

Juco: 25%. They're always good and recruit really well. That's pretty much it. We've beaten Bama fewer than ten times in our existence.

Ghost: If there's ever a time for blind, careless optimism, it's now. So, screw it, we win, by a lot, and it will be the greatest party Ole Miss has seen in, like, two or three weeks.

[ESPN has our odds of beating Alabama at 35.5%, with Alabama being 5.7-point favorites. That's not too bad.]

Smeargle: The powder blue movement has reached an all time high with the debut and popularity of the Nike polo and now infamous World Cup cap. With a progressive Ross Bjork as AD, I wouldn't imagine he would necessarily be against bringing back the powder blue helmets. However, the question then becomes, "Which game would you debut them and would it be a one-time or ongoing thing?" (i.e. Notre Dame's green unis that they break out only once a season for big home games like USC). Obviously the best chance for them to happen this season would be against Bama considering Oxford has a high probability for it's first College Gameday so the exposure for the helmet and "cool" factor to recruits would be really high. I'll guess 65% chance this year.

Ghost: I don't think so, unless it were a part of some deal with Nike (i.e., Pro Combat). If we were to see them, I think we'd definitely know well in advance. I too think they'd be a killer throwback, but I think that the athletics department feels that the red and navy scheme we've got now is marketable and iconic enough to leave untouched.

Smeargle: My favorite way to prepare a PB&J is with creamy peanut butter and jelly premixed in a bowl, then spread on the bread. Honestly though, I probably haven't eaten a PB&J since working at a summer camp about 10 years ago.

Ghost: Smooth. When it comes to peanut butter, I accept no half measures.